The Royal Greenhouses of Laeken (, ) are a vast complex of monumental heated greenhouses in the park of the Royal Palace of Laeken (northern part of the City of Brussels), Belgium. The historic complex contains tropical, subtropical and cold greenhouses.
The greenhouses were designed and built by Alphonse Balat on behalf of King Leopold II. They are now part of the Royal Domain and the royal private gardens belonging to the Belgian royal family, and are accessible to the public only a few days a year. This site is served by Stuyvenbergh metro station on line 6 of the Brussels Metro.
History
Inception and construction
The original gardens of the Royal Palace of Laeken date back to the 18th century, but King Leopold II drastically changed their appearance. The king, having visited the Crystal Palace at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, wanted such a progressive building in his palace's garden, which would combine his love for plants with multifunctional spaces that could also be used as a banquet, theatre and dining halls. He called on the botanist Jean Linden for this project, but his design was too unambitious. He then commissioned his architect Alphonse Balat. Balat's plans surpassed all that had been achieved at the time, even the Palm house in London's Kew Gardens (1844–1848) and Carl Bouché's botanical garden in Berlin-Schöneberg. The realisation came about in close consultation between Balat and the king, following frequent discussions, correspondence and preliminary designs.
The first construction phase took place between 1874 and 1893, ending with the completion of the so-called Iron Church, a domed greenhouse, which would originally serve as the royal chapel. The inauguration took place in 1880, but the complex was also expanded afterwards. During that period, the king was preparing his Congo Free State, a private colony which was founded in 1885. The greenhouses were intended as a symbol of the king's colonial power: plants from Central Africa were said to illustrate that power. In particular, the Congo Greenhouse and the Embarcadère Greenhouse were built in 1886–1888 from this perspective. A third zone was constructed from 1892 to 1905. For this, after Balat's death, Leopold called upon the architects Henri Maquet and Charles Girault. The octagonal Palm Pavilion was furnished as a bedroom and connected to the palace by a subterranean corridor where Leopold received his mistresses. After the death of the king, in 1909, the greenhouses were preserved, but the Iron Church was converted into a private royal bathing house.
Present-day
The Winter Garden at the palace in Laeken still serves as the setting for royal receptions. Every year in the spring, the greenhouses are partially opened to the public for twenty days at the request of Leopold II. This tradition has been carried on by all monarchs who reigned after him. The greenhouses are also sometimes used today for contemporary art exhibits and displays, such as Alexandre Dang's The Dancing Solar Forget-Me-Not for the International Day of Missing Children (in cooperation with Child Focus) in 2010.
Description
The Royal Greenhouses of Laeken are among the major monuments of the 19th century in Belgium. They were built entirely in metal and glass, which represented a spectacular innovation for the time (as was the Crystal Palace in London). This complex takes on the appearance of a glass city set in a hilly landscape. It is characterised by monumental pavilions, glass domes, as well as wide galleries that run through the land like covered streets. The total floor surface of this immense complex is . Approximately of fuel oil are needed each year to heat the buildings.
Winter Garden
The largest greenhouse, the round-domed Winter Garden (1874) with a diameter of and a height of , is made up of a number of concentric cast iron trusses, which are additionally supported halfway through their span by a circular Doric colonnade. The start and end points of the trusses rest on the ground so that the greenhouse presents the image of a glass dome supported by flying buttresses. Its enormous dimensions made it possible to plant Congolese palm trees in the rotunda. This Winter Garden, the main building of the complex, was also of great importance for the development of cast-iron architecture.